I’m charged (this morning) to review SONGS OF CHILDHOOD (Poems of Lanre Idowu). And I embrace the task with an uncommon pleasure. Especially because I consider literature to be a veritable tool for attaining national sanity. And yes, quite frankly, because Poetry is LIFE itself! Isn’t it?!?!?!
It is my privilege therefore, to attempt a review of this collection of Poems by Mr. Lanre Idowu. I tell you, SONGS OF CHILDHOOD, like steamy romance, and smouldering Passion – is – a many splendored thing! Absolute joy. Pure nostalgia. And a reflection obviously, of Lanre Idowu’s vision, sensitivity, courage, and compassion. Who can forget those hawkers, and what they meant to the neighbourhoods? In the SONGS OF CHILDHOOD, the poet richly captured, and situated me, for example, right smack, in the middle of my own childhood’s landscape and unforgettable experiences…. I can hear, even now, the songs of the Fishmongers – so graphically evoked – Gbetu o, omi a kereese! Gbetu o omi a kereese!
As to his rueful musings in his Invocation, as to whether the stories told in these recollections of his childhood would “make sense to the reader” – my answer was: “You are kidding me!!!”
How more powerfully, how more evocatively can your SONGS OF CHILDHOOD resonate with your readers, Mr. Lanre Idowu, when your Muse had ME, to begin with, totally mesmerised, enthralled, and all but time-travelled, to my own, now misty, never-never wonderland of childhood – to a glimpse of that dreamland of purity and innocence – to my lost paradise.
The scene is already set, as imagined by the Poet of the SONGS OF CHILDHOOD – this tender and romantic evocation of the past.
So, will you be my Valentine? And let’s make a bold bid, right now, to regain our lost innocence together, by taking another glimpse at Paradise – however temporarily? Give me your hand, and let us walk together, hand in hand, you and I, along the memory lane of our magical childhood – to a Love Garden – where we sit, reflect and dream, together, of our future, full of glorious possibilities, and potentials.
This lucid poetry collection will get under your skin, with the stealth of Amotekun, subsume you, and engage you – signposting, and illuminating many surly areas of our tottering polity, such as: Integrity, Insight, Respect, Family, Cohesion, Discipline, Decency, Morality, Religion, Truth, Harmony, Compassion, Grace, Generosity, Competence, Responsibility, Security, Tolerance, Commitment, Faith, Conscience, Character, Courage, Optimism, Sympathy, Empathy, Charity, Discernment, Perception, Perseverance, Patience, Conscience, Honesty, Modesty, Community, Solidarity, Civility, Shame, Poverty, Aesthetic, Arts & Culture, Public Health & Hygiene, Recreation, Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Diversity, Justice, Equity, War & Peace, Conflict Resolution, Gumption, Patriotism, Honour, Wisdom, etc. etc.
It’s been sad, in the last few decades, while rendered into a stupor, to watch how Nigeria changed so awfully, so radically, while spiralling into a toxic hell-hole of mendacity, from which it would require Hercules himself, to dig her out of. As Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah recently lamented:
“Our nation is like a ship stranded on the high seas, rudderless and with broken navigational aids. Today, our years of hypocrisy, duplicity, fabricated integrity, false piety, empty morality, fraud and Pharisaism have caught up with us. Nigeria is on the crossroads and its future hangs precariously in a balance.”
However positive and optimistic your mindset may be, you have to admit that as far as the State of the Union is concerned, the more you look, the less you see. Strange how some things change, but somehow, still manage to remain the same.
We can therefore, only pray that this unwelcome, unwholesome, wicked metamorphosis, is a bad dream from which we shall eventually awaken. But the jury is out on that!
Not quite everything can be explained away as nostalgia, though. Lucky for us, some diehard traditionalists, and some orthodoxies, still form a formidable vanguard: resolutely pushing back, and resisting our corrupt morass of many hues. They challenge Nigeria’s sad state of arrested development, steadfastly holding on to quality, sound values, honesty and integrity.
Without a doubt, Lanre Idowu is one such stoic.
His commitment to clarity, doing the right thing, and helping others, I consider, second to none. While some bombasts equate aggression with confidence, Lanre’s unfailing civility, consistent, and persistent steady composure, now sadly missing in our social and business intercourse, demonstrate an uncommon humility, at work, and in personal contact. Informed by his sound family background, the standards he sets for quality, integrity and service, at every instance, underscore his inimitable understated confidence and leadership. He possesses a great curiosity, as shown in his poems – and respect for others, the likes of which we don’t see enough of these days.
My name is Ilumoka Amuludun Olayide Oladunni Taiyelolu AJAI-Ofe! Like my grandfather before me, who was a famous Minstrel, in these parts, I am a Performer. I’m an Actor. And I’d like to, respectfully, remind you of one of the personalities, who, not unlike Lanre Idowu’s, populated my childhood, making up the memorable sights and sounds of the neighbourhoods – the incomparable – Kokoro, the Blind Minstrel with –
Mbati N’Aya
Keregbe ni oo je oo!
Mbati N’Aya
Keregbe ni oo je o!
Ojo ee Toro, Ojo ee Sisi
Emu ni!!
Ojo ee Toro, Ojo ee Sisi
Emu ni!!
Mbati N’Aya
Keregbe ni oo je oo!
Yet another character guaranteed to fire my own childhood imagination was this Iya Oniwosiwosi – this dingy, but to me, quite fascinating hawker -with assorted local wares, perched on her head, parading up and down our Ondo Street, Ebute Metta, Apapa Road Axis, inviting all and sundry to buy her local cosmetics, as she sang lustily….
E bamira tiro ooo!
E bamira’le tiro ooo!
E bami ko kauuun!!!!
There are many heart warming, and heart-rending, powerful, and amusing pieces of family life, loss, longing, conflict, heartbreak, war peace, fatigue, regret, remorse, renewal, and redemption, in the SONGS OF CHILDHOOD such as on Page 10 – The Song of The Monitor-Lizard:
Alayoybere mo rie
Ki o tod’ejo, mo ti d’abere
Eje mi korobiewuro………
“Monitor-Lizard, I can see you
Before you change into a snake
I’m already a porcupine.
My blood is bitter like the bitter-leaf.”
As the creature slides along,
We claim the efficacy of the song
For our victory over the wiggly creature;
Before moving on to another subject:
Alayoybere mo rie
Ki o tod’ejo, mo ti d’abere
Eje mi korobiewuro………
NOTE: “Alayoybere” is in fact, a Salamander.
For the maintenance of sound Public Health, we have, on Page 12 – The Song of the Dog Catcher:
As the wind swirls dust before rain
Their arrival stirs the street into frenzy
Men in khaki shirts and shorts,
Pushing wooden carts of canine breed.
“Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!”
Adults scamper to hide unvaccinated dogs;
Excited youths run outside to witness
The spectacle of dogs being lassoed
And hurled into the carts.
Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!
The trapdoor closed, the cart wheels away;
The men in khaki March away
As concerned adults plead for their dogs’ release
And youths turn to jelly over their loss.
Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!
The pleas fail and canine crew is moved
To the health centre where the dogs are inoculated
For a fee and later released with a shiny metal ringed Into their collars as proof they merit human company
Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!
It is really the cry for public safety.
Beyond the temporary loss of one’s treasured pets,
It is the cry to prevent avoidable deaths from rabies By a government concerned with public welfare.
Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!
Sadly, the cry has abated;
Not into a chant or refrain of concern,
Not a whimper, but dead silence;
A decaying disdain for public good!
Majamaja ti loo, Majamaja ti loo!
And so follows the Song of Redemption which proclaiming-
The land lies prostrate
To human vermin
Who lull us into docility
As they feast on our commonwealth
We allow kith and kin of dubious ancestry
Trample on the sacred values of the land
Whilst we, victims of our superior breeding,
Dawdle at the chance to save the land?
Are we to keep mute
In supreme surrender
Like vanquished troops
Being herded into confinement?
Where are the sanitary inspectors
Who will clear the drains
Of dangerous pests
Before they suck us dead?
Where are the dog catchers
Who will rid the land of pets
That have turned on their owners
And save us from premature death?
When shall we rid our community
Of the parasites who turn our lives into hell
By making an offering of them
In the village square as we sing again –
Majamaja ti de o, Majamaja ti de o!
The Song of the Beggars on Page 17, laments the dreadfully lacerating poverty, in the midst of plenty; underscoring how far still, we have to go in pursuit of economic equity, in a society held hostage by wretched billionaires, devoid of any semblance of conscience or shame:
As night twinkles with a million stars,
They are as regular as the Northern Star.
On the roadside they can be heard, singing:
Ba bi Allah, tori Olorun, Ba bi Allah,
Ba bi Allah, tori Anobi
E bunmitoro, Ba bi Allah
Asiri abo, Ba bi bi Allah.
When the sun is hot and workers go on break,
The male crew, bowls and sticks in hand, appears
Under the almond tree, singing:
Ba bi Allah, tori Olorun, Ba bi Allah,
Ba bi Allah, tori Anobi
E bunmisisi, Ba bi Allah
Asiri abo, Ba bi Allah. ……
Sonorous as the song is to the ears
And lustily as the children sing along,
It is a cry for help, lost on us:
A tug at the human heart for crumbs,
Reminder of the collective want around;
A class plea of the wretched to the struggling!
Ba bi Allah is a cry for deliverance
From the predators of the land
Who reduce the able bodied to beggars in the land.
Pity! Then and now, the song flows unabated!
Ba bi Allah, tori Olorun, Ba bi Allah,
Ba bi Allah, tori Anobi
E bunmisisi, Ba bi Allah
Asiri abo, Ba bi Allah. …..
There is the touching “Song for my Dad”, “Song for a Teen”; “Song for a 4-year-old”; and an “Ode to Yaba”.
You may visit the Song of the White Wanderer on Page 22, and many more amusing and thought provoking episodes of Lanre Idowu’s previous incarnation, with for instance, the “Song of a worried Mother”, page 36; “Song of the Failed Pianist”; “The Lament from Garage 47”. Enjoy the “Song of Dayspring”, and the great lament of the sad period of the Biafra War, with a “Song to Nicholas” – and one of my many favourites is on Page 68 – “Song of the Wind” – which I consider a metaphor, loaded with messages of salvation, redemption, restoration, and the promise of a renaissance.
In its roaring cry
You can hear the wind
You can feel the wind
You may see it whirl
But you can’t catch the wind.
Who will save the land from this scourge?
The elders on bended knees
Offer pots of appeasement
To stop the carnage in the land
And contain the rage of the wind.
At road junctions and township markets
The earthenware pots sit
Conveying the wishes of the people
To the God of the wind
As it rips its way through the land.
Master of different seasons
The wind, today, mercifully crows
Hopes of a new birth!
From the ashes of death
Rise hope of containing the wind.
In its whistling call
You can hear the wind
You can feel the wind
You may not see the wind
But you can contain the wind.
These are glimpses at some of the fascinating gems contained in the treasure trove that is THE SONGS OF CHILDHOOD. I commend this book to you all.
It remains now for me to catch my ride home, on the locomotive, back to suburbia, to Ebute Metta, West, singing – “Song of the Train”!
Mo ti goke
Mo ti so
Mo ti goke
Mo ti so
Oketiwonropenko le gun
Ah! Mo ti gu-un
Oke ti wonropenko nle gun
Ah! Mo ti so.
I have ascended the hill
I have descended the hill
The hill deemed impossible
I have ascended it.
Yes, I have descended the hill!
I have navigated the journey
I have returned from the journey
The journey deemed impossible
I have navigated it.
Yes, I have returned from the journey!
I will embark on the task
I will accomplish the task
The task to make a man of me
I will embark on it
Yes, I will accomplish the task.
Mrs Ajai-Lycett delivered a performance ladden review of this book at its public presentation on February 13th at MUSON Centre, Lagos.
